Proposals for Autumn-Winter 2016-17 Over 20 designers and 14 labels at the 37 fashion shows in the 38 th Portugal Fashion One of the biggest calendars ever: 21 designer collection shows, 10 young designer coordinates and six commercial lines of clothing and footwear labels The shows in Porto will be divided between CEIIA Centre for Excellence and Innovation in the Automobile Industry,the Porto Customs House and the TramMuseum Alexandra Moura returns to the event and Ana Sousa, the Pé de Chumbo label, and young designer Maria Kobrock make their débuts New collections for the cold season from Anabela Baldaque, Carlos Gil, Dielmar, Fátima Lopes, Luís Buchinho, Luís Onofre, Miguel Vieira, Nuno Baltazar, Katty Xiomara, Pedro Pedro, Vicri and more Young designers Carla Pontes and Mafalda Fonseca make their début on the main event calendar Hugo Costa and Daniela Barros will be presenting their individual collections on the main catwalk for the first time A partnership with Mozambique Fashion Week brings the Ideias a Metro label and young Mozambican designers Omar Adelino and Shaazia Adam to the event The event opened at the Beato Convent in Lisbon, with the well-known Storytailors and Alves/Gonçalves, emerging designers Susana Bettencourt and Estelita Mendonça and the young designers from the HIBU label and the Arte Moda by Casa Pia project This Portugal Fashion has a vast and eclectic line-up. It opened at the Beato Convent in Lisbon on 16 March and will continue over the next three days in Porto, where the majority of the shows will be held. This 38 th event will have designer fashion by well-known and emerging designers,
commercial lines from the industry and coordinates by young designers in the Bloom project, which is dedicated to new talents. In all, there will be 24 designers (22 individual designers and two duos), eight clothing labels and six footwear labels, 13 young designers (five individuals and eight finalists in the Bloom Competition) and three young designer labels. Given this diversity of proposals, João Rafael Koehler believes that the 38 th Portugal Fashion has a good balance between designer fashion, designs for the market and proposals from young designers. This has always been the idea behind Portugal Fashion, but I believe that the programme of shows at this event realises our ambition to embrace the various aspects of fashion particularly well, concluded the President of ANJE, the event organiser. This is, in fact, one of the biggest shows ever put on by Portugal Fashion, an event that celebrated its 20 th anniversary last year. The 38 th Portugal Fashion autumn/winter 2016-17 will have 37 fashion shows: 21 designer collections, 10 young designer coordinates and six commercial lines of clothing and footwear labels. Such a large number of shows, designers, labels and young designers is a sign of the vitality of Portugal Fashion and the Portuguese fashion sector, is the assurance given by João Rafael Koehler. In Porto, the event will be held in the Matosinhos CEIIA Centre for Excellence and Innovation in the Automobile Industry, an infrastructure for the Mobility Industries cluster designed for holding trials and tests and making structural calculations. It is in the almost cybernetic atmosphere of this modern building that the six shows on the second day of the 38 th Portugal Fashion are held, with Júlio Torcato inaugurating the catwalk. He is followed by designer Pedro Pedro and then Hugo Costa, who presents his first individual show on the event s main catwalk. The calendar of shows continues with the first appearance at Portugal Fashion of Pé de Chumbo, Alexandra Oliveira s designer label that favours the use of fabrics in her creations for women. It should be noted that although this is the first time Pé de Chumbo has taken part in the event, it has already received support from Portugal Fashion in its participation at Tranoï Femme, a textile trade show that was held this month during the Paris Prêt-à-Porter Week. This time, Pé de
Chumbo will be using the Portugal Fashion catwalk to present a collection with some ethnic inspiration and which stands out for its mixture of thick strands of wool and the delicacy of fine transparent lace, with colour contrasts between suave pinks and beiges and greys and blacks with red details. According to the label, this collection reflects the main theme and the distinctive motif of Pé de Chumbo: textures. The first day of shows in Porto will end with two designers that are very closely linked with Portugal Fashion and that are certainly part of the history of Portuguese fashion: Anabela Baldaque and Fátima Lopes. The Porto stylist will be presenting her A Vizinha (The Neighbour) collection, where the predominant features are waterproofs, thick fabrics and hairy wool, printed knits, lace, brocade and plain fabrics in colours that include greys and silver, deep blues, pearl and whites, mustard, blacks and gold. The silhouette is varied: long and tight or short and loose. Young designers on the main catwalk In the Porto Customs House, the nerve centre of this Portugal Fashion, the event opens at 3:30 pm on Friday with a joint show by two young designers who have moved from the Bloom project catwalk to the main catwalk. They are Carla Pontes and Mafalda Fonseca, whose collections have a quality and maturity that has allowed them to take part in the official calendar of the event. In turn, Daniela Barros, will once again be revealing his collection on the main catwalk, but this time it will be an individual show. This young designer also started by presenting his coordinates at Bloom. More recently, he moved up to the main catwalk and he is now presenting his collection in a show for his creations only. In the middle of the afternoon, new faces will be making their début at Portugal Fashion, this time from Mozambique. This is the collective show by the Ideias a Metro label (a project by Carla Pinto, a Portuguese designer living in Mozambique) and two young Mozambican designers, Omar Adelino and Shaazia Adam. The presence of these designers is under the scope of a partnership between Portugal Fashion and Mozambique Fashion Week, which is considered to be the most dynamic fashion week in Africa. It is important to remember that Portugal Fashion produced the shows by Miguel Vieira, Roselyn Silva and Micaela Oliveira in the Polana Serena Hotel in Maputo during
Mozambique Fashion Week last December. The third day of Portugal Fashion will end with a number of very interesting shows, where the new collections by Elsa Barreto, Carlos Gil, Diogo Miranda, Luís Onofre and Miguel Vieira will be revealed. In his Cor (Colour) collection, Miguel Vieira has defined a woman s silhouette consisting of informal, structured lines, voluminous lines that do not hide her femininity, long and extra-long heights and a loose, purist fit. For men, the new collection proposes structured suits and beautifully cut trousers. The colours chosen by the stylist are caviar black, mustard yellow, dark navy blue, Olympus blue with a mixture of sapphire and cobalt shades and marshmallow white. The last day of shows begins at 12:30 pm at the Tram Museum, with the proposals from Luís Buchinho. Called The missing piece, the new collection takes all its inspiration from threedimensional puzzle pieces, carrying you into a universe dominated by the idea of construction. To this end, the designer revisits classic items and deconstructs the original shapes of dresses as we know them. Wool, jersey and leather collide to create a remarkable two-dimensional, graphic effect. The colours are neutral: black, navy blue and greenish grey. The collection is the actual expression of the urban spirit where femininity is confronted with a masculinity as complex as an unsolvable puzzle, the designer said. After Nuno Baltazar s collection, revealed at 2:30 pm at the Porto Customs House, the usual collective footwear and clothing label show will be held. The new footwear collections from JJ Heitor, Ambitious, Fly London, Nobrand, J. Reinaldo and Dkode will be presented. Then it s the turn of the new ready-to-wear lines by Mad Dragon Seeker, Concreto and Cheyenne. One of the models in the Cheyenne show will be a young man with Down s syndrome, under the scope of a partnership between Portugal Fashion and the Palco Sem Barreiras association. Début of Ana Sousa and return of Alexandra Moura During the afternoon, it will be time for stylist Ana Sousa to make her début at Portugal Fashion. Her label, of the same name, has 59 shops in countries including Portugal, Spain, Luxembourg, South African and Switzerland and her collections are present in over 310 multi-brand shops all over the world. During the event, Ana Sousa will present her Timeless collection. According to
the designer, it is marked by eternal femininity and recreates a glamour concealed in past influences, reliving eternal stories and memories. The silhouettes range from light and loose with floral prints in winter shades, to sinuous with organic shapes, to tight with relaxed, unfettered items in lace and napa leather. In turn, transparency and overlaps highlight the sexier, bolder side of the collection. After Katty Xiomara s show, of note is the return to the event of Alexandra Moura, one of the most important Portuguese designers nowadays. She took part in Portugal Fashion in 1996 and, more recently, she was on the calendar with her collection designed for the Goldmud footwear label. Alexandra Moura already made her return during London Fashion Week, with the support of Portugal Fashion, where the designer had the opportunity to exhibit her autumn/winter 2016-17 collection, not only in showroom format but also through a performance open to specialised press and international buyers. At the 38 th Portugal Fashion, Alexandra Moura will be presenting her WoMan collection, a reflection on the impact of the feminine on the masculine and vice-versa inspired by the character and spirituality of Anohni (F.K.A. Antony Hegarty). The classic silhouette is deconstructed and becomes contemporary. The weight of the materials reveals the comforting image of a blanket that protects from a "false identity". The sophistication of the textures and patterns gives the garments the romance and plasticity of another era. The collection breaks free in a mixture of feminine and masculine characteristics in one being, spirit and energy, the designer explained. The 38 th Portugal Fashion will end with the best of the national clothing industry. First, haute couture from Dielmar, then British inspired ready-to-wear clothes from Lion of Porches and finally men s classics from Vicri. It should be noted that before the shows in Porto, the collections for the next cold season by the well-known Storytailors and Alves/Gonçalves, emerging designers Susana Bettencourt and Estelita Mendonça and the young designers from the HIBU label and Arte Moda by Casa Pia were presented at the Beato Convent in Lisbon. The event began with the presentation of the final
projects from the students on the technical professional Fashion Design course at Casa Pia, in a collective show publicising the talent of the young designers trained at the institute. Portugal Fashion is a project under the auspices of ANJE National Association of Young Entrepreneurs, in partnership with ATP Textile and Clothing Association of Portugal, and is currently funded by Portugal 2020 Compete 2020.
Portugal Fashion again focuses on new talents THE BLOOM CATWALK HOSTS THE WORK OF 13 YOUNG DESIGNERS AND THREE NEW DESIGNER LABELS Altogether, this 38 th Portugal Fashion will have 10 shows dedicated to those taking their first steps in the fashion world The winners of the 2015 Bloom Young Designers Competition will be announced after a show featuring the eight finalists The 38 th Portugal Fashion includes 10 fashion shows under the scope of the Bloom project, a platform open to the work of young designers and their labels. When the event opened in the Beato Convent in Lisbon on 16 March, the final projects from the students on the technical professional Fashion Design course at Casa Pia were presented in a collective show intended to publicise the talent of the young designers trained at the institute. Later on, the HIBU label developed by young designers Marta Gonçalves and Gonçalo Páscoa revealed its innovative, new collection, also at the Beato Convent. Eight other shows on the Bloom catwalk are planned for Porto, between 17 and 19 March. In all, during the four days of the event, the collections of five young designers (Eduardo Amorim, Inês Marques, Maria Kobrock, Pedro Neto and Sara Maia) and three new designer labels (HIBU, KLAR and [UN]T) will be presented, as well as the coordinates by the eight finalists in the 2015 Bloom Competition (Amorphous, Beatriz Bettencourt, David Catalan, Fii, Inês Maia, KDI, Patrícia Shim and Sara Marques). This is the third stage of the 2015 Bloom Competition. It consists of the presentation of the coordinates at a collective show which is part of the calendar for the 38 th Portugal Fashion. Of the eight young designers selected, there will only be four winners. Their final classification will be announced at the end of the show. In addition to being given the opportunity to present and publicise their work on the Portugal Fashion catwalk, the winners will receive a financial incentive of one thousand euros for creating and developing their collections.
Competitions such as this, organised by Portugal Fashion and aimed at new talents, began in 2004 and have been responsible for bringing names like Filipe Trindade, Pedro Pinto, Diogo Miranda, Ivo Calado and, more recently, Carla Pontes, João Melo Costa, Estelita Mendonça, Hugo Costa, Mafalda Fonseca and Susana Bettencourt, among others, to the attention of the market. The discovery, support, guidance and promotion of young designers is one of the strategic aims of Portugal Fashion, the President of ANJE, the event organiser, emphasised. Portugal Fashion seeks to act as a catapult for emerging talent, in order to renew the national fashion panorama, to facilitate the integration of new designers into the labour market and to fill any gaps that companies in the clothing sector may have in terms of design, João Rafael Koehler added. Accordingly, the main instrument of this strategic aim is in fact the Bloom project. Carla Pontes, Daniela Barros, Estelita Mendonça, Hugo Costa, Mafalda Fonseca and Susana Bettencourt are examples of young designers who, following their participation in the Bloom project, have consolidated their careers and are now on the main event calendar. They have also taken part in several international fashion events with the endorsement of Portugal Fashion. Maria Kobrock's Début Of note at the 38 th Portugal Fashion is the début of young designer Maria Kobrock, which demonstrates the willingness of the organisation to publicise new designers at each event, helping make them part of the fashion world. Maria Kobrock was born in Aveiro in 1993. The German-Portuguese designer studied fashion design and "pattern making/draping" at ESMOD Berlin University of Art for Fashion and is now doing an intensive course on Footwear Design at the Gudi Fashion School in Porto. She has already worked in the Ayres Bespoke Taulo studio in Porto and in the Lidija Kolovrat studio in Lisbon. Maria Kobrock has also worked as an assistant in Katty Xiomara s studio in Porto. At the 38 th Portugal Fashion, Maria Kobrock will be presenting her Inhabited Narrative collection,
inspired by the work of the British artist David Hockney. In her own words, the young designer uses this collection to explore fashion as a continuous narrative, designing each coordinate through multiple perspectives. Mimicking Hockney s collage technique, through which different angles of the same image are presented, the collection attempts, both experimentally and conceptually, to introduce an idea of movement and continuity to the coordinates, proposing them not just as body adornment, but as a dynamic and relevant extension of the body. More than 30 young designers supported by Bloom The Bloom project was created by Portugal Fashion in 2010, at the 27 th event, in order to nationally and internationally support, publicise and promote young Portuguese designers. The word Bloom means to flourish, blossom, glow And it is with this spirit of incubation that the fashion professor and designer Miguel Flor takes on the coordination of the Bloom project. He is in charge of selecting the designers, providing support to the structuring of the coordinates and the design of the shows. But, it is important to note that the Bloom shows are more like performance arts than traditional fashion shows. Since the 27 th Portugal Fashion in October 2010, the Bloom project has made it possible for 34 young designers and six new designer labels to present their collections on the event s alternative catwalk: Alexandre Marrafeiro, Ana Segurado, Andreia Lexim, Carla Pontes, Carlos Couto, Catarina Santos, Celsus, Cláudia Garrido, Daniela Barros, Diana Matias, Eduardo Amorim, Elionai Campos, Estelita Mendonça, Gonçalo Páscoa, Hugo Costa, Inês Marques, Iúri, Joana Ferreira, João Melo Costa, João Rôla, Mafalda Fonseca, Margarida Gentil, Maria Martins, O Simone, Pedro Jorge, Pedro Neto, Pedro Pinto, Pilar Pastor, Pritt Franco, Rita Gilman, Sara Maia, Stefano Ficetola, Susana Bettencourt, Teresa Abrunhosa, as well as the Align With Kay, Atelier Ctrl, Autopsy (by Jordann Santos), HIBU, KLAR and [UN]T labels. Designer Maria Kobrock can now be added to this list of names, as she will be making her début at this 38 th Portugal Fashion. Some of these young designers have also participated in international fashion shows and showrooms with the support of Portugal Fashion and have been present at important fashion events in London, Vienna, Paris, Copenhagen and Madrid.